Archive for May, 2013

TOPIC:
50 Years of Reading Rand and Studying Objectivism–A Personal Memoir
and a few things I’ve learned along the way

SPEAKER:
Bill Perry

DESCRIPTION:
Bill Perry first discovered The Fountainhead in a bookstore a little over 50 years ago. He has been reading Ayn Rand novels and non-fiction as well as other writings about her philosophy ever since. He will recount some personal history and discuss some of the most important things he has learned over the years.

WHERE:
Jackie & Lyman Hazelton’s Home
480-516-3281
Use http://www.mapquest.com/ to get directions from your location.

3. Wynand has stated his life goal is to have power, yet he realizes he is powerless in his relationship with Roark. How can he find pleasure in that? What does that tell us about Wynand? [653-655;594-596]

4. What does Roark mean when he says he is “too egotistical for that”? [655;596]

5. Is Wynand’s statement that he has never owned anything, never wanted anything accurate? What about his art collection? What about his publishing empire? In what sense is his claim to true selflessness true? [655-656;596-597]

6. Wynand seems to correctly identify Toohey’s view of selflessness and altruism. Why doesn’t he complete the argument to recognize Toohey’s motives? Why doesn’t he see the danger that Toohey represents? Is it because Toohey’s motive is too close to his own? [658-659;597-599]

7. Why doesn’t Roark tell Wynand that the man who goes after power over others is “the worst second-hander of all”? [660;601]

8. Is the reaction of Roark’s staff upon his return surprising to you? Why had they not realized previously that the Cortlandt design must have had Roark’s style in it? And shouldn’t they have realized that something had gone very wrong in the finished product? [661-662;601-602]

9. Where were the government officials during the mangling of the low-cost design of Cortlandt? Why didn’t anyone question the wasteful additions to the original clean design? Why didn’t Toohey care, after originally emphasizing to Keating the cost issue? [662-663;602-604]

10. Why did the bastardization of the project “just happen”? Why would Keating offer to pay the architectural fees to Roark? Did he really believe that would assuage Roark’s response to Keating’s failure to deliver on his part of the deal? Why does Roark say that he himself is guilty, too? Why does Roark think that it not having happened on purpose make it even worse? [663-664;604-605]

11. Why is Dominique’s participation in the dynamiting of Cortlandt a test for her? If she could agree to this now, why is she still married to Wynand? Why is Dominique so reckless in her handling of the intentional infliction of her own injury? [664-669;605-610]
Chapter XIII [pp. 670-684 Bobbs-Merrill hardback; pp. 610-623 Signet paperback]

12. Why does Gail persist in thinking that Dominique doesn’t like Roark? Why does Howard persist in pushing Dominique towards Gail, even as he says that would not sacrifice his own happiness with Dominique for Gail’s sake? [670-674;610-614]

13. How well does Wynand’s campaign in defense of Roark address the issues that motivate Roark? Why doesn’t Roark help Wynand to frame that defense? Is this Roark’s test of Wynand as well as of Dominique? [674-682;614-622]

14. Is Toohey a bundle of contradictions? He claims to be “selfless.” Yet he wants power. And he wants desperately for someone to recognize his genius. Yet he seems to agree with Gus Webb that Gus, not himself, is the exemplar of the future. [682-683;622-623]

WHERE:
Jackie & Lyman Hazelton’s Home
480-516-3281
Use http://www.mapquest.com/ to get directions from your location.